Best Friend's Boyfriend

Chapter 13

           But Cody didn’t kiss me back. He kept his lips still and pushed me off of him, eyes wide and full of anger.

            “Brooke, that wasn’t okay,” Cody said. “I’m sorry if I gave you any idea that we should kiss but I have a girlfriend I really care about. A girlfriend who is supposed to be your best friend.”

            “You even just said it yourself that she isn’t a good friend to me,” I defended myself. “Cody, you cannot honestly tell me that you haven’t been waiting for that kiss.”

            What was I saying? He was right- kissing him was not okay! He’s Kelli’s. But I wasn’t about to lose another person. You’d think I’d learned my lesson by now not to trust people when they say they’ll always be there for me, example A, Kelli. But I wasn’t letting this happen again. I don’t easily let my walls down for people, but for Cody, I did. Nobody except for Kelli knew how I’d gotten my scar, but now Cody did too. You can’t just tell me that you’ll be there and then leave. You can’t say things you don’t mean.

            I’d make Cody stay, no matter what the cost.

            “What?” he was caught off guard.

            “You wanted me to kiss you. Isn’t that why you kissed me first?”

            “Your forehead, to let you know we’re friends and I’m here for you. On the lips is completely different,” he said.

            “Cuddling with me? Rubbing my hair? Wanting to get to know the real me? Come on Cody, you know that kiss meant something,” I tried to convince him.

            “Of course I wanted to kiss you, Brooke. But not while I had a girlfriend I really cared about,” he looked distraught.

            “Which is why telling her would kill her,” I said. “We both made a mistake, let’s just forget about it and continue on like it never happened. No one has to know.”

            “If no one has to know,” he said after a moment, “then we can do it again…right?”

            I turned my head to face him, shocked by what he was asking. More shocked by that I was hoping he would say that.

            “Kelli will never find out?” I asked.

            “Never,” he said, pulling me in for more.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

         “Yo, there is no way that happened!” we heard Duke say as the stairs creaked on the guys’ way down. Cody and I immediately knew to pull up and act as casual as possible. The second these guys found out was the second Kelli would find out.

            Looks like you’re not better than me, Kel I caught myself thinking. I felt awful to think that, but it’s not like I was the one who started this whole thing.

            The five guys burst back through the door, laughing and carrying McDonald’s bags. Jace threw Cody’s bag at him and handed some fries to me.

            “Dude, holy shit!” Jace exclaimed, looking back at Cody. “That hickey on your neck! It’s huge!”

            “What??” Cody quickly covered his neck. Carter came over and ripped his hand off his neck so he could see. “Oh my God!” Carter laughed.

            “It looks like you just got it,” Graham said, confused.

            “I guess Kel really got you good,” I laughed before Graham had enough time to really think about it.

            “I can’t believe I didn’t see that before, I can see it from over here!” Mattie said from the couch on the other side of the room, shoving half a burger into his mouth at once.

            “Your mom is going to kill you when she sees it. Remember when Kel left her shirt in your room and she found it?” Duke laughed.

            “That was like, a week into our relationship and I swear all I did was take her shirt off when we were making out. But my mom screamed at me and then the next day she put a box of condoms in my room with a note that said ‘be safe’ hahaha,” Cody laughed.

            “She’s going to see it and be like ‘my son is having some wild sex’ even though it’s only one hickey,” Duke laughed. “I still can’t believe Kelli won’t let you fuck her yet. Like, it’s been four months, what is she waiting for?”

            “Wait…you haven’t had sex yet? That’s impossible, I literally held her hand as she cried and took a pregnancy test two months ago,” I said. Did Kelli lie to me about having sex so I’d think she’d done it before me?

            “I mean, I definitely want to but she won’t let me,” Cody said. That bitch, she did lie to me.

            “Do you kids want some ice cream?” Mrs. Hayes called from upstairs, changing the conversation.

            “Yes please!” the five guys called back up.

            “Yo, she’s gonna see this!” Cody said worried.

            “I have some makeup in my bag if you want,” I started to get my foundation out and apply the makeup to his neck. The guys laughed and even took pictures of it, tweeting it with the caption ‘Cody getting his makeup done.’

            We locked eyes for a second and we both were thinking the same thing: hiding hickeys with makeup would become a regular thing if we kept doing this. But what was more clear? We were both willing to.